Country of Residence
Nigeria
Age
19
Project title
EcoRise Nexus
Project Summary: Describe your project in one sentence
At EcoRise Nexus, we turn climate change from something young people only hear about into something they can actually see, understand, talk about, and act on in their everyday lives and communities.
Website URL(s) or social media handles.
https://eco-rising-nexus.lovable.app
Project Category
My project is an existing project that I started
Project Stage
Pilot-Stage (We’ve tried an activity or two)
Founding Story: What was the spark that led you to start your project? What was the "Aha!" moment that led you to get started and see the potential for this to succeed?
It all started on a Saturday evening. I had just returned from my church choir rehearsal and sat on my bed while my twin brother lay beside me watching a movie. Earlier that morning, I had seen news reports about the frequent flooding affecting different parts of Nigeria, and the images kept coming back to me. I started wondering: what can we, as citizens, actually do to reduce these impacts? I knew that poor waste disposal especially dumping waste in gutters and waterways contributes to flooding in many communities. But then another question hit me: what if people simply don't understand the consequences of these everyday actions? What if we've started accepting environmental problems as normal because there isn't enough awareness about them? I turned to my brother and asked what he thought about me starting a climate and environmental sustainability initiative that would begin by educating people about these issues. I knew I couldn't change the world in a day, but I could start with my community and the young people around me. That evening, the idea became something I wanted to pursue. I spent the next four days researching how to make it work, developing our goals, vision, structure and programmes. I eventually reached out to friends, and their excitement and support made me realise that this idea could become something bigger than the conversation that started it.
The Problem: What problem are you helping to solve? Why does it matter to you and your community?
Sometimes, I think we have become too used to seeing environmental problems around us. A flooded street, a gutter filled with waste, plastic scattered around a community e.tc. People see these things every day, but they can easily become “normal.” That is the problem I want EcoRise Nexus to help address: the gap between the environmental challenges people experience and their understanding of how their everyday actions contribute to them. In many communities, conversations about climate change and sustainability can sometimes feel complex, technical, or like something meant for conferences and experts. Meanwhile, young people are actually living through the consequences without always having the opportunity to connect the dots. This matters to me because I believe proper awareness can really change how people see the things they have become accustomed to. If someone understands why dumping waste into a gutter matters, or how losing trees affects their community, they may begin to see their everyday choices differently. I honestly do not expect EcoRise Nexus to solve Nigeria's environmental challenges overnight. I want to start where I am, with young people and the communities around me. We aim to make climate and environmental issues easier to understand, more relatable, and harder to ignore.
Your Solution: How are you solving this problem? Share your specific solution.
We don't want climate action to feel like a lecture. We want people to see it in things they already understand, enjoy, and experience every day. That is how EcoRise Nexus approaches the problem. We do this in several practical ways. First, we organise online webinars that bring students from different parts of Nigeria together to learn about climate and environmental issues from seasoned experts and, importantly, young people who are already taking action themselves. This makes learning interactive and allows young people to hear from people they can relate to. We also take learning outside the screen. Through tree-planting activities in schools and orphanages, we talk to young people about why trees matter and then involve them in actually planting and caring for them. In local communities, we combine environmental education with clean-up exercises. Rather than simply cleaning an area for people, we engage residents and show them practical ways to dispose of waste properly, while providing basic materials such as waste bins, brooms and other cleaning supplies where possible. For children, we use storytelling. We create relatable comics with different characters and everyday situations to introduce environmental ideas early and make them easier to remember. We also pay attention to where young people already spend their time: social media. Since AI-generated videos have become a fun and familiar part of platforms like TikTok and Instagram, my team has experimented with using AI educational videos to turn climate and environmental messages into content that people are actually interested in watching. Across all these activities, the idea remains the same: don't just tell people to care about the environment,help them see why it matters in their own lives.
Impact: How has your project created impact / made a difference so far? Or, if at an early stage, what will impact look like?
When I started EcoRise Nexus, I honestly didn't know how far a simple idea could go. I just knew I wanted environmental conversations to reach people in a way that felt real to them. Since then, that idea has grown into activities that have reached over 2,000 people, including young people across 11 primary and secondary schools and 4 communities, alongside visits to 2 orphanages. Our impact has not only been about the number of people reached. It has been about changing how people interact with the issue. We have taken climate education beyond online conversations through tree-planting exercises, environmental clean-ups and community engagement. We have spoken with young people about waste disposal and involved them directly in practical activities rather than simply telling them what they should do. As stated earlier, we've experimented with creative ways of reaching different audiences. Our comics and AI-powered educational videos help people see environmental ideas through creative and relatable approaches. For me, the most encouraging part is seeing that an idea that began on a Saturday evening in my bedroom has already reached thousands of people and moved beyond awareness into action. And I see this as a beginning, not a finish line. EcoRise Nexus is still growing and we definitely still have a lot planned for the future.
Your Innovation: What is different about your project compared to other programs or solutions already out there? How is your project new or innovative?
What is the point of telling someone to care about the environment if the way I'm explaining it doesn't even speak to them? That question shaped EcoRise Nexus. There are already youth-led initiatives doing meaningful work through clean-ups, tree planting, campaigns and environmental education. What we are trying to do differently is bring these approaches together in a way that feels familiar to the people we want to reach. A child can meet an environmental lesson through our comics, where characters and everyday situations make the message easier to understand. A young person scrolling through LinkedIn or Instagram can encounter one of our AI educational videos. A student who wants to go deeper can join our webinars and hear directly from experts or other young people. We have also built Maya, our EcoRise Nexus AI assistant, so learning doesn't have to stop when a webinar or social media post ends. Anyone visiting our website can ask Maya questions about climate action and environmental sustainability. Then we take that knowledge offline. Students in schools and orphanages don't just hear about the importance of trees, they plant them. In communities, we combine clean-ups with talks about proper waste disposal. What makes the combination work is simple: each part meets people at a different point. The comics and videos catch attention. Webinars build understanding. Maya answers the questions that come afterwards. Physical activities turn that understanding into something people can actually experience. So our innovation isn't claiming that we invented any of these methods. It is the way we connect them around one simple idea: make environmental action relatable enough to understand, engaging enough to remember, and practical enough to do.
How many people are on your team?
32
Your team: What role(s) do your team members play? How do you share leadership with them?
EcoRise Nexus is a 32-member team, and everyone has a part to play. We have people handling programmes, research, media, creative design, partnerships, community engagement, welfare and volunteers, among others. I lead as Founder & Executive Director, but I don't see leadership as doing everything myself. I trust my team to take ownership of their roles, bring their ideas to the table and lead tasks. We plan, execute and learn from our activities together.
What’s Next: What are the next steps you plan to take to grow or strengthen your project over the next year? If your project is still in the idea stage, describe the steps you will take over the next three months to launch or begin developing it.
Honestly, I don't want EcoRise Nexus to remain something that is only known within the spaces where we have already worked. Over the next year, one of our biggest plans is to launch a 5-week International Ambassadorship Programme in collaboration with other youth-led initiatives across different countries. Selected applicants will learn from seasoned experts in climate and environmental education(which we have already started sourcing from LinkedIn) and those who successfully complete the programme will become EcoRise Nexus ambassadors in their countries. They will take what they learn back to their schools and communities and help champion climate action in ways that feel relevant to the people around them. I also want to make the most of the networks I am currently building through the Young Planet Leaders Changemakers Academy and my training with the Global Alliance of Universities Climate X. I hope to use these connections to find people and organisations we can genuinely learn from and work with. At home, we are already working on expanding EcoRise Nexus to more universities across Nigeria. Plans and proposals have been submitted, and we already have interested students waiting to get involved. For me, the next step is simple: reach more young people, give them something meaningful to take away, and let them carry the work further than I ever could on my own.
How do you encourage other people to join your project or learn about the problem you’re working on? If you have a new idea, tell us how you will do this in the future.
Over time, I have built a community of more than 16,000 students on LinkedIn. Many of them don't just read my posts; they respond, ask questions, share them and show interest whenever I talk about EcoRise Nexus or a programme we are running. We also have a WhatsApp platform for our members, which gives us a more direct space to keep people informed, interact with them and get them involved. When we have a webinar, volunteer opportunity, campaign or physical activity, I use these platforms to invite people in. I try not to make it feel like I'm simply advertising an organisation. I explain why the activity matters and give people a reason to want to be part of it. We also activate people through the work itself. Students have participated in tree planting, clean-ups and environmental discussions, while our comics, educational videos and webinars give people different ways to learn about the issues. Going forward, I want to turn more of the people who follow EcoRise Nexus into active changemakers. As we expand into more universities in Nigeria and launch our international ambassadorship programme, I really want people to move from simply seeing climate action content to actually taking what they've learnt into their schools, communities and countries.
